Das neue maschinenlesbare Zeitschriftenmodell des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Ein Werkstattbericht

Auch bei archäologisch arbeitenden Disziplinen ­spielt nicht nur die Publikation der Forschungsdaten, die im Rahmen eines Projektes entstehen, eine zentrale Rolle, es gewinnen ebenso Interoperabilität und maschinelle Lesbarkeit der zu veröffentlichen­den Inhalte zunehmend an Bedeutung, um die Ergebnisse ihrer Forschungsarbeit in bestmögli­cher Form rezipier- und nachnutzbar zu machen. Der vorliegende Artikel will in Form eines Werkstattberichts zeigen, wie das Deutsche Archäologische Institut im Rahmen seiner Digitalisierungsstrategie ein neues Zeitschriftenmodell entwickelt, das dabei den Anspruch hat, Artikelinhalte in maschinenles­barer Form zu publizieren und darüber hinaus dazu­gehörigen Forschungsdatenkonvoluten durch die inhaltliche und technische Verschränkung eine prominente Sichtbarkeit zu bieten.The new machine-readable journal model of the German Archaeological Institute. A workshop report. In Archaeology, not only the publication of research data plays an important role additionally to traditional journal articles. Interoperability and machine readability of all kinds of content are also becoming increasingly important in order to make the scientific outcome receivable in the best possible way. In the form of a workshop report, this article wants to share the German Archaeological Institute´s experiences in developing a new journal model as part of its digitization strategy, which aims not only to publish journal articles in machine-readable form, but also to give research data publications prominent visibility by including them into the articles

Catalysis at Ciba-Geigy

After an introduction describing the significance and a short history of catalysis at Ciba-Geigy, the present role of the Catalysis Section within the Central Research Services is outlined. Its main activities are preparative services for the synthetic chemists in the fields of hydrogenation and high-pressure reactions, the development of catalytic processes and a research program in the fields of enantioselective catalysis, the modification of heterogeneous catalytic systems, acid-base catalysis and catalytic C–C-bond forming reactions. Because catalysis is considered by Ciba-Geigy to be a key technology, the main goal of its R+D program in catalysis is to create and maintain a reliable scientific and technical foundation for the optimal application of catalytic reactions throughout the company. Some results are presented that illustrate the work described above and an outlook on the opportunities of catalytic technologies in the fine chemicals industry is given

Invention and Development of a Novel Catalytic Process for the Production of a Benzenesulfonic Acid-Building Block

Development of a highly 'atom-efficient' production process for 2-alkyl-substituted benzenesulfonic acids by arylation of olefins with 2-diazoniobenzenesulfonate catalyzed by a homogeneous Pd-complex and subsequent hydrogenation of the resulting styrenes with an in situ generated heterogeneous Pd-catalyst

Combined flow cytometry and high-throughput image analysis for the study of essential genes in Caenorhabditis elegans

Background: Advances in automated image-based microscopy platforms coupled with high-throughput liquid workflows have facilitated the design of large-scale screens utilising multicellular model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans to identify genetic interactions, therapeutic drugs or disease modifiers. However, the analysis of essential genes has lagged behind because lethal or sterile mutations pose a bottleneck for high-throughput approaches, and a systematic way to analyse genetic interactions of essential genes in multicellular organisms has been lacking. Results: In C. elegans, non-conditional lethal mutations can be maintained in heterozygosity using chromosome balancers, commonly expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the pharynx. However, gene expression or function is typically monitored by the use of fluorescent reporters marked with the same fluorophore, presenting a challenge to sort worm populations of interest, particularly at early larval stages. Here, we develop a sorting strategy capable of selecting homozygous mutants carrying a GFP stress reporter from GFP-balanced animals at the second larval stage. Because sorting is not completely error-free, we develop an automated high-throughput image analysis protocol that identifies and discards animals carrying the chromosome balancer. We demonstrate the experimental usefulness of combining sorting of homozygous lethal mutants and automated image analysis in a functional genomic RNA interference (RNAi) screen for genes that genetically interact with mitochondrial prohibitin (PHB). Lack of PHB results in embryonic lethality, while homozygous PHB deletion mutants develop into sterile adults due to maternal contribution and strongly induce the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPR mt ). In a chromosome-wide RNAi screen for C. elegans genes having human orthologues, we uncover both known and new PHB genetic interactors affecting the UPR mt and growth. Conclusions: The method presented here allows the study of balanced lethal mutations in a high-throughput manner. It can be easily adapted depending on the user's requirements and should serve as a useful resource for the C. elegans community for probing new biological aspects of essential nematode genes as well as the generation of more comprehensive genetic networks.European Research Council ERC-2011-StG-281691Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2012–3550

Love is the triumph of the imagination: daydreams about significant others are associated with increased happiness, love and connection

Social relationships and interactions contribute to daily emotional well-being. The emotional benefits that come from engaging with others are known to arise from real events, but do they also come from the imagination during daydreaming activity? Using experience sampling methodology with 101 participants, we obtained 371 reports of naturally occurring daydreams with social and non-social content and self-reported feelings before and after daydreaming. Social, but not non-social, daydreams were associated with increased happiness, love and connection and this effect was not solely attributable to the emotional content of the daydreams. These effects were only present when participants were lacking in these feelings before daydreaming and when the daydream involved imagining others with whom the daydreamer had a high quality relationship. Findings are consistent with the idea that social daydreams may function to regulate emotion: imagining close others may serve the current emotional needs of daydreamers by increasing positive feelings towards themselves and others

An In-Silico Study on Integrated Mechanisms of Mechano-Electric Coupling in Ischaemic Arrhythmogenesis

Heterogeneous mechanical dyskinesis during acute myocardial ischaemia is thought to contribute to arrhythmogenic alterations to cardiac electrophysiology. Various forms of mechano-electric coupling (MEC) mechanisms have been suggested to contribute to these changes, with two primary mechanisms being: (1) myofilament-dependent calcium release events, and (2) the activation of stretch-activated currents (SACs). In this computational investigation, we assessed the collective impact of these processes on mechanically-induced alternans that create an arrhythmogenic substrate during acute ischaemia. To appraise the potential involvement of MEC in ischaemia-induced arrhythmias, we developed a coupled model of ventricular myocyte electrophysiology and contraction including SACs and stretch-dependent calcium buffering and release. The model, reflecting observed electrophysiological changes during ischaemia, was exposed to a series of stretch protocols that replicated both physiological and pathological mechanical conditions. Pathologically realistic myofiber stretch variations revealed calcium sensitivity changes dependent on myofilament, leading to alterations in cytosolic calcium concentrations. Under calcium overload conditions, these changes resulted in electrical alternans. The study implies that strain impacts cellular electrophysiology through myofilament calcium release and SAC opening in ventricular mechano-electrical models, parameterised to available data. This supports experimental evidence suggesting that both calcium-driven instability via MEC and SAC-induced effects contribute to electrical alternans in acute ischaemia.Comment: 20 pages; 8 figures; original pape

Cognitive biases to healthy and unhealthy food words predict change in BMI

The current study explored the predictive value of cognitive biases to food cues (assessed by emotional Stroop and dot probe tasks) on weight change over a 1-year period. This was a longitudinal study with undergraduate students (N = 102) living in shared student accommodation. After controlling for the effects of variables associated with weight (e.g., physical activity, stress, restrained eating, external eating, and emotional eating), no effects of cognitive bias were found with the dot probe. However, for the emotional Stroop, cognitive bias to unhealthy foods predicted an increase in BMI whereas cognitive bias to healthy foods was associated with a decrease in BMI. Results parallel findings in substance abuse research; cognitive biases appear to predict behavior change. Accordingly, future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining, encouraging individuals to reorient attention away from unhealthy eating cues

Investigating hyper-vigilance for social threat of lonely children

The hypothesis that lonely children show hypervigilance for social threat was examined in a series of three studies that employed different methods including advanced eye-tracking technology. Hypervigilance for social threat was operationalized as hostility to ambiguously motivated social exclusion in a variation of the hostile attribution paradigm (Study 1), scores on the Children’s Rejection-Sensitivity Questionnaire (Study 2), and visual attention to socially rejecting stimuli (Study 3). The participants were 185 children (11 years-7 months to 12 years-6 months), 248 children (9 years-4 months to 11 years-8 months) and 140 children (8 years-10 months to 12 years-10 months) in the three studies, respectively. Regression analyses showed that, with depressive symptoms covaried, there were quadratic relations between loneliness and these different measures of hypervigilance to social threat. As hypothesized, only children in the upper range of loneliness demonstrated elevated hostility to ambiguously motivated social exclusion, higher scores on the rejection sensitivity questionnaire, and disengagement difficulties when viewing socially rejecting stimuli. We found that very lonely children are hypersensitive to social threat

Positivity of the English language

Over the last million years, human language has emerged and evolved as a fundamental instrument of social communication and semiotic representation. People use language in part to convey emotional information, leading to the central and contingent questions: (1) What is the emotional spectrum of natural language? and (2) Are natural languages neutrally, positively, or negatively biased? Here, we report that the human-perceived positivity of over 10,000 of the most frequently used English words exhibits a clear positive bias. More deeply, we characterize and quantify distributions of word positivity for four large and distinct corpora, demonstrating that their form is broadly invariant with respect to frequency of word use.Comment: Manuscript: 9 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures; Supplementary Information: 12 pages, 3 tables, 8 figure

Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South African Lowveld

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9258-y. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.Durkheim’s classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘masculine domination’ provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs